Academy Students Earn National Recognition from Scholastic

This spring, several Interlochen Arts Academy students earned high honors through the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. The competition was founded in 1923 and is recognized as the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for student achievement in the visual arts and creative writing in the U.S.

Creative writing major Margaret Nietfield of Minneapolis was honored as a recipient of the Portfolio Gold Medal, a highly-coveted $10,000 scholarship presented to only fifteen students across the country. Fellow creative writing students Danny Rothschild of Bohicon, Benin received a Gold Medal for nonfiction; Emily Hittner-Cunningham of Freiburg, Germany received a Gold Medal for short story; and Ilana Fogelson of Salt Lake City, Utah received a Silver Medal for poetry.

Five visual arts students joined the winning creative writers in representing the top young artists and writers in the country receiving Gold and Silver Medals from the competition.

Gold Medal visual artists from the Academy included: Benjamin Corwin of Traverse City, Mich.; Sean Jones of Ithaca, New York; Won Choi of Seoul, South Korea; and Juntae Hwang of Seoul, South Korea. Chen Ni of Schenzhen, China was honored with a Silver Award for his artwork.

The visual arts students will display their works in a national exhibition at Carnegie Hall in New York this May. National Award winners and their teachers will also be honored at an Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall on June 9.